his speech and actions are perfect. Deficiency arises only from a lack of knowledge, an inability to express that knowledge, or an unwillingness to explain it. The Messenger possesses the utmost perfection of knowledge, the utmost resolve to convey the message clearly, and the utmost ability to do so.

When complete ability and firm resolve are present, the intended result must follow. It is therefore known with certainty that his explanation of belief in Allah and the Last Day achieved the clarification he intended. The clarification he intended accords with his knowledge, and his knowledge of these matters is the most perfect knowledge.

Anyone who supposes that someone other than the Messenger knows these matters better than he does, explains them more fully, or is more eager to guide people is among the heretics, not the believers. The Companions, the Successors who followed them in righteousness, and those who follow their way in this matter are on the straight path.

As for those who deviate from their way, they fall into “three groups”: the proponents of takhyīl (imaginative representation), ta’wīl (interpretation), and tajhīl (ascribing ignorance).

The proponents of imaginative representation are the adherents of philosophy and those speculative theologians, Sufis, and jurists who follow their path. They say that what the Messenger mentioned concerning belief in Allah and the Last Day is merely an imaginative representation of realities intended to benefit the general public—not that he thereby explained the truth, guided people, or clarified those realities.

They, in turn, fall into two groups. Some say that the Messenger did not know those realities as they truly are. They say that some metaphysical philosophers knew them, as did some individuals